The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

An hour ago.

"Are you really alright?" Zenick asked Aisha one more time, his gaze wandering to her face.

Aisha nodded. "I am. Don’t worry about me."

Zenick took a second to look her over carefully, perhaps waiting for her to change her mind. Yet, Aisha was determined to go to the ceremony, and he could do nothing about it.

He had known long ago how stubborn his younger sister could be when she set her mind on doing something. In fact, when she was younger, he’d worried a lot about her well-being. Soon after she was announced to be the prince’s fiancée, Aisha had taken proper etiquette lessons and became even more studious. Their parents hadn’t noticed anything back then and thought this was a good idea to tame and turn her into a good future consort. But Zenick thought otherwise.

He noticed how she was slowly destroying herself. Always up late in the night, going to bed much later and waking up earlier than the servants in their home. She wouldn’t listen to him even when he warned her to rest. She would only tell him to mind his own business and not interfere in her life.

Zenick had tried everything he could for her until the day he was finally given a task as the Novalis family’s heir to start learning the ropes in their merchant business.

"Fine."

In the end, he knew he would do anything she wanted. After making certain that Aisha wouldn’t bleed out and collapse, he stepped into the hover car and reached his hand out to help her in. Just as they were about to take off, however, his terminal started buzzing with incessant noise that broke the tranquil silence inside the hover car.

"Who is it?" Aisha asked curiously.

Zenick looked down at his terminal, a frown taking over his face. He read each word from the message he received from his employees. Even his Vice Captain was urging him to return to the merchant ship he had returned with on the planet.

He briefly glanced at it once more before looking up at Aisha, who looked at him expectant of his answer. But how could he tell her that the merchant ship was under attack? And it wasn’t just a normal attack. It seemed that this had been planned the moment he stepped into Gaia.

Not wanting to make her worry after what she went through, Zenick didn’t tell her the truth.

"It’s my Vice Captain. It seems one of the crewmates in my merchant ship messed up and blew his arm off while repairing the ship."

He watched as Aisha’s eyebrows were raised. "Is it serious?"

Zenick shook his head and replied, "It shouldn’t be. We can send him to a treatment room in the ship and have his arm healed. He’s... he’s also a close friend of mine. Additionally, there seems to be something wrong with the repair of the ship..."

He paused, unsure of how he could break the news of him leaving her before he could escort her inside the imperial hall. A part of him didn’t want to leave her alone. But thinking of the lives of his crewmates being in danger, and possibly already on their way to open the gates of the underworld, Zenick didn’t know what to do.

Aisha didn’t know the turmoil swirling inside his heart, but a sweet smile spread across her lips. The sight of her only made him feel regret and guilt.

"Brother, you don’t have to come with me if you have something urgent to do."

She gave him the chance to leave, but Zenick still hesitated.

"I’d hate myself if I held you back from checking up on your friend’s life. Besides, the state of the merchant ship is an important matter that can’t wait," Aisha smiled gently, patting his hand to assure him that she wasn’t upset about this.

Zenick looked at her before he slowly nodded. "Let me send you to the imperial palace before I go."

Aisha’s face took on a surprised look as she heard him. But Zenick didn’t want to leave her so soon after he witnessed her bleeding for no reason. His men might be fighting for their lives right now, but they should be able to hold back for as long as they can until he arrives.

When they reached the imperial palace, there was not a single person outside. He’d expected his parents and siblings to be waiting inside the imperial gates like they had told him before they had left that morning. Yet, they were nowhere in sight.

His face darkened as he started to get even more upset. He wanted to storm in and tell his parents that they were being unfair to Aisha, but a soft and slender hand touched his forearm, snapping him from his thoughts.

"You should go now. Don’t make your friend wait."

Zenick stared at her for a long time, wishing he’d just told her the truth. But making her enter the imperial hall filled with worry was not something he could do.

Nodding his head, he told her, "I will. I’ll make sure you go inside first."

Aisha smiled at him again, making his chest tighten in guilt. She turned around and walked toward the imperial palace while he stood outside the gates, watching her go in.

When she finally disappeared from his eyes, Zenick turned and was about to leave when he saw a hover car landing right next to his own hover car.

"Valaerion!" Zenick was surprised to see who stepped out of the hover car. "What are you doing here?"

Zeke looked at him for a second, momentarily confused as to who he was. Zenick wasn’t embarrassed as he was used to this, and chuckled. "I was in the same class as you ten years ago!"

The young admiral looked as dashing as Zenick remembered him to be. Perhaps he looked even more handsome now that he had turned into a refined man whose status was too far for anyone to reach.

Zenick didn’t wait for him to remember him. He had somewhere else to be. It was his own luck to meet an old classmate and greeted him, but it was no time to discuss the things from the past.

"Well, then..." he nodded at the young admiral and headed to his hover car.

"Why were you with her?"

Zenick had one foot in when he heard Zeke question him. He turned his head to look at him and asked, "Who?"

"That... that young woman from earlier."

Zenick thought that Zeke must have seen him sending Aisha off to the imperial palace while he was in the air. He didn’t think too deeply into his question and replied, "She’s my sister."

He waited for a follow-up response from the young admiral, but the latter didn’t seem to have any other thoughts. Maybe he was just curious about seeing him leave a woman alone to enter the palace. Of course, it might also be because Aisha looked alluringly beautiful that she even caught the stoic admiral’s eyes.

But Zenick shook the image away as he understood that no one could ever get in Zeke’s eyes. As far as he knew, the admiral had lived a celibate life even before he became an admiral.

His terminal buzzed once again, turning bright red. Zenick’s face became as grey as a cigarette’s butt as he knew what that had meant—the merchant ship’s defenses had fallen.

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